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Archive for the ‘cool tools’ Category

This past summer a group of artists and indie game developers in the Seattle area attempted to develop a super-cool video game that allowed player to explore the inside of a cell as if they were actually inside the 3D structure. Unfortunately, the team was unsuccessful in meeting its funding goal, however, they left a strong impresson on me and I believe that they have a product which can seriously help revitalize the biology classroom.

Checkut the video from Kinect Biology and give us your feedback. Do you think that there idea is worth funding?

Pathway analysis provides an efficient and focused approach for studying a large number of related gene targets in a single experiment. The pathway curation and ranking strategy employed by Thomson Reuters and Bio-Rad ensures that the gene assays present on each real-time PCR pathway and collection panel are the most relevant for gene expression profiling based on differential expression studies and the frequency with which gene targets appear in the peer-reviewed literature. All PrimePCR assays were designed following strict guidelines on maximum transcript coverage, have minimal overlap with known single nucleotide polymorphisms, and span large introns where possible. In addition, they have all been fully validated in the lab, passing stringent quality controls. As a result, PrimePCR panels set a new quality standard for commercially available predesigned qPCR pathway panels.

Apoptosis and survival — TNF-R1 signaling pathway map. This pathway map is one example of the 260 canonical pathway maps provided by Thomson Reuters. Pathway maps illustrate protein interactions and regulation to provide a comprehensive picture of signaling and disease processes. On the Bio-Rad website, each target on the map can be selected to view corresponding gene and protein information.

The Mind exhibit is one of the coolest science exhibits found in any science museum. What makes it so cool? Well, for one thing, in Mind, you are the exhibit! Located at the Exploratorium in San Francisco’s Marina District, Mind is a permanent museum collection with over forty exhibits that create provocative and compelling experiences that illuminate how the mind works. Some of their coolest activities include:

an activity to analyze the changes in your facial expression in a moment of extreme surprise

an exhibit that forces participants to communicate with body language rather than facial expressions

my favorite experiment (which can be played online) that challenges you to explore the limits of your mind’s attention capacity